Tourism stretches beyond plateau

With help from the government and a UNESCO designation, Kanbula becomes a popular destination, boosting villagers' livelihoods, Li Yingxue reports in Huangnan Tibetan autonomous prefecture, Qinghai.

When the world's highest plateau collides with the Yellow River, the planet's fifth-longest waterway, the result is dramatic yet delicate.

In Kanbula, a remote corner of Northwest China's Qinghai province, nature has sculpted a masterpiece — vivid Danxia cliffs, red sandstone landforms sculpted by erosion into cliffs and gorges; jewel-toned lakes cradled by sheer gorges; and forests that appear untouched by time.

This is a place where basins and gorges alternate, forming a typical yet unique Danxia landform, says Hou Guangliang, a geographer at Qinghai Normal University. "And it's a place where you can read a million years of Earth's history in the rocks."